Ripples
by E3-FantasyandReality
Summary: Every great decision creates ripples. The heavier the ripples, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences. Unbeknownst to Sasuke, he was about to create a wave like no other. [Pre-Uchiha massacre]
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This has been sitting in my computer for nearly an eternity! Let's see where this goes, shall we?

 **Dedicated to Duesal Bladesinger.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

 **Ripples**

 _I alone cannot change the world,_

 _But I can cast a stone across the waters_

 _To create many ripples._

 _._

 _._

Sasuke stood in front of his elder brother with his new found power - the chidori - roaring, _sizzling_ , on the palm of his hand like a thousand birds. He gritted his teeth to leash his hatred, but it served no use. He _needed_ to kill him - for his fellow clansmen whom he murdered in cold blood.

An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. Blood for blood.

 _"Itachi!"_ He roared out hoarsely, half exhausted.

His eyes pulsed a deeper red hue as the tomoes swirled with languor and deadliness. Although his peripheral vision had sharpened, the image of Naruto standing awestruck behind Kisame and Itachi was blurred through his scope. _He_ didn't matter. That other man - Jiraiya - didn't matter. Heck, not even his brother's teammate mattered.

All that mattered was Itachi.

His once beloved brother.

His nightmare.

"I will avenge our - _my_ \- clan!"

Sharingan met sharingan. Red met red. Hatred met hatred.

The chidori sung out before it died with a violent torrent. Sasuke's roar turned into a wanton groan of agony.

...

...

...

The world turned black. And Sasuke was submerged in darkness.

He plunged into the realm of oblivion with a distinct gravitational confusion. Sasuke didn't know whether he was falling down from the sky or he was drowning under water due to sensory deprivation. Yet he remained perfectly unfazed with his immobility.

It felt somewhat... _soothing_. The darkness enveloped around him with warmth and smoothness; he felt more content than he's ever been. His eyes were half-open, but he saw nothing.

It was pitch black and peaceful.

But, the deeper he sank, the thinner he consciousness became. He blinked. It's getting darker... and _darker_.

Is this the sea of death?

After blinking the third time, Sasuke saw a shimmer of white light beaming directly at him. A muffled cry of his name rang through the water. He continued to drift downwards with a faded smile.

He was tired. So very tired.

Maybe it was time to give up.

And let someone else dictate his fate.

Deeper within the unknown he saw a man donned in black. He merely stretched out his hand with a silent proposition that he somehow understood.

After he touched the faceless man's hand, everything became clearer.

 _"You are-!"_

...

...

...

Sasuke awoke like any self-respecting shinobi: _motionlessly_.

Irritably he commanded his eyes to slowly crack open. It was like wrenching rusted doors open, heavy and painful.

He was welcomed with darkness.

Once then twice, he blinked, and tried again. His eyes continued to see that same black. For a few idle moments the young ninja started to deliberate if he had been rendered blind. He blinked for the third time - then the fourth - until the black void began to pale. Suddenly he could see an inky dark blue above.

Sasuke was met with a swarthy cloak of the night sky beautifully polluted with twinkling stars shining in the night.

His palms shifted along the silken strands of newly cut grass as he attempted to prop himself up. Sasuke jolted his muscles and forced himself up in a hasty manner. He used every ounce of control he had to unwind his limbs from its rusted state without constricting up again along with a sea of nausea. After accomplishing the arduous task of beating away his vertigo, Sasuke finally took in his surroundings with an almost disbelieving euphoria.

He was beside the koi pond in the Uchiha compound.

Sasuke uncoiled himself and rose up from the ground. As he walked back inside his foot stopped mid-way. He palmed his face as he clutched onto his shirt. He knew he saw something within the realms of unconsciousness, but he couldn't seem to put a finger on it.

Quietly, he pushed all the questions back and proceeded to walk into his compound.

...

...

...

Night still overlay Konoha when Itachi returned, an adumbral vastness stretching over the cavity wherein the village resided, but it was dissipating quickly, morning light struggling to break through. He wasn't overly weary, but he needed a shower, maybe solid food, and sleep. His report would have to wait until after his shower at the very least. It was quiet, almost too quiet, when he passed the gates of his home.

A pulsation of chakra tingled. Whether it was concealed beforehand or not, it caught Itachi off-guard. Upon realization of whose chakra it belonged to, Itachi felt trepidation creep up in his spine. Maybe he was dosed with too much fatigue. On any other day, he would have detected his brother's chakra within a millisecond. "Sas-"

Sasuke was already staring at him before he could take one step further. Itachi's chin dipped in greeting, his strides slow, even.

"You're early." Sasuke's greeting was more articulate than Itachi's, though his voice didn't carry the emotions that dwelt in his gaze. Odd. Did he just pick up on restriction and foretaste and aggression in the glint of his little brother's eyes?

"I finished quickly."

There wasn't a smidgen of blood on Itachi's clothes, nothing to indicate he'd come out of a bloodbath, but Sasuke's eyes trailed over him as if he could see its phantom traces.

"Please tell mother not to wake me till noon."

It was the signal that conversation had come to an end. Sasuke's lips thinned with the realization, and Itachi thought he was about to protest, but his brother valiantly held it in, gave a short nod. Perhaps he was growing.

"Onii-san –" Perhaps not. "The teacher asked us what we wanted to be once we graduated." Sasuke paused, fixed Itachi with a curious gaze, unsure whether he should continue on the matter.

It was a waste of time. Sasuke wouldn't have broached the matter if he didn't plan on talking from the start. Itachi made a noise in his throat – which Sasuke took as his cue to continue.

"I was thinking…" Sasuke's voice dragged softly with childish uncertainty. It was rather assertive, more daring. "About joining ANBU."

Itachi pondered the possibility for a few seconds.

"Maybe," was all he said.

He did a double take on his younger brother. He licked his lips. "...Sasuke," he spoke gently, wearing the warm brotherly mask over his ANBU counterpart as best as he could. "Is something wrong?"

The child locked eyes with him and said nothing.

 _Nothing._

It was then that Itachi picked up that something was definitely wrong.

"...You promised to train me today." Sasuke directed his gaze elsewhere.

Ah. So that's what the problem was.

Itachi pressed his fingers on his forehead and watched him wince back.

"Forgive me, Sasuke. Maybe some other time."

...

...

...

Itachi perched himself on his compound's roof that morning, coffee in his hand, chin propped on the other. Something felt off with Sasuke before. His lips thinned with disdain as he hummed, mind in deep thought. His brother felt rigid that night - frightened, maybe? He didn't scowl, wail and childishly beg for him to train him.

...He just wanted to _talk._

The Uchiha leaned in closer to the edge when he saw his brother hurriedly rush out of the compound, white bag slung over his shoulder, packed with his mother's bento. It was Sunday today; they didn't have school.

Curiously, his eyebrows knitted together in a frown. With a light sip, Itachi used his body flicker to exit out of the Uchiha compound all together.

He trailed behind Sasuke on the rooftops with caution. Sasuke meandered around the village without any stops, running as fast as his short legs would take him. It turned out his rendezvous was at the river bank, where their father taught him the Great Fireball technique.

Itachi blended in the shrouds of the trees' shadows and quietly watched.

For the past hour, Sasuke read a book in peace. His movements only consisted of his hands flicking the book to the next page. He remained idle for the longest time, wallowing in the peacefulness that resonated in the zephyr.

Discord with patience struck a nerve in Itachi. He came out of the shadows with nonchalance and approached his brother. "...Sasuke,"

"Onii-san!" The boy exclaimed with joy. Almost immediately the book was deposited in the boy's bag. "You're not on a mission today?"

"Not until this afternoon."

Sasuke watched Itachi sit beside him with his shoulder slumped forward. Quietly, he analysed his fatigued form draped over in his ANBU uniform, and his dark circled eyes which outlined his exertion. He sat quietly as he hugged his legs with his arms.

"...Onii-san, do you perhaps hate... me?" he whispered under his breath.

Itachi flinched back and owlishly stared. "What would make you think that?"

The youngster sulkily nodded before he buried his face in his arms. "It's just... I had a dream."

"What kind of dream?"

"Where we tried to hurt each other."

Itachi's forlorn expression eased. "Is that why you're reading that book?"

"Huh?" Sasuke cocked his head to the side, innocently.

"That book labeled: _'What Dreams Mean'_."

Sasuke's cheeks furiously became tainted with a rose hue. "I-I... was just curious."

Itachi smiled meekly and mussed up his hair with a chuckle. "Dreams are merely at that - _dreams;_ a figment of your darkest imagination."

"..It didn't feel like a dream, though," he spoke in an uneasy tone. "...And I saw this man. I don't really remember this dream. It's too weird."

"A man?" Itachi softly questioned, taking a pebble from within the knots of the silken grass.

"Yeah," he nodded. "He had black hair and one red eye."

As the halcyon wind dragged across Sasuke's skin and hair, he felt a molten sensation brimming around his darkened pupils. He watched Itachi throw the pebble into the river.

The pebble sank into the water keenly, creating a series of expanding ripples as it submerged itself into the depths of the river.

"I've seen him before..." Sasuke's eyes didn't leave the waning lines in the water.

The disruption of the stone on the river had a ripple effect.

 _He had the eye of an Uchiha._

...

...

...

 _No one is actually dead_

 _until the ripples they cause_

 _die away._


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Just another simple chapter. It will soon pick up when I find my footing with this story.

 **Visions**

 _When you drop any new idea in the pond of the world, you get a ripple effect._

 _You have to be aware that you will be creating_

 _A cascade of change._  
.

.

The next day was as normal as Sasuke could remember: the classes were beneath his capacity and that stupid blond, Naruto, was as stupid as ever. The odd rifts he noticed a few days before no longer gnawed into his conscience. He continued the day as best as he could and practiced his shuriken technique in the school yard.

As he spun the last star, he felt a sharp _'ping'_ in his nape and the chakra presence immediately registered in his mind. He twirled and grinned massively. "Onii-san!"

Itachi looked shocked at first. Probably because he didn't anticipate for Sasuke to be so fine-tuned with his surroundings. Normally, especially whilst in the midst of training, he could catch his little brother off guard. Could this perhaps mean that he's finally growing up?

Sasuke rushed to him and gestured to the board he battered with shurikens and kunais. "Can you teach me more shuriken moves?" He began to tug at Itachi's pants. "You promised me!"

The elder brother softly smiled before he mussed over his neat hair. "Come with me, then. I'll teach you before mother calls us for dinner."

Sasuke's onyx eyes brimmed with pure joy.

…

…

…

Sasuke openly admired his brother's lithe form as he twirled in mid-air and shot all of the projectiles in his hands. The intricate calculations he quickly did on a whim to change the motion of some of his kunais was unlike Sasuke has ever since before. Within a second, the sound of metal digging into wood echoed in the woods before a rustle of clothing followed.

Itachi dusted off his clothes and looked at all of the targets he had hit – all of them were right on the red mark. His scarlet jewel dimmed from its concentrated state, calming from the rush of adrenaline that pumped through his body at that moment.

"Alright, it's my turn!" Sasuke whipped out his own set of weapons, desperately eager to get started with this regime.

The other Uchiha halted him. "Before we do any of that Sasuke, have you been taught the art of concealment yet?"

He nodded, despite being utterly confused by their sudden manoeuvre off topic.

"Good."

In a split second, Itachi vanished in thin air and left Sasuke pondering by himself in the woods.

" _Try finding me,"_ the voice echoed.

Despite concentrating all of his attention to the fading voice of his brother, Sasuke could not precisely pinpoint the direction of his lingering voice. However, a bush from nearby was disrupted by brash movement. A sense of victory tugged at the corner of Sasuke's lips.

His brother was hiding behind that sycamore tree! As he scurried towards that direction, he suddenly stopped as a myriad of broken memories suddenly flashed in his mind. In a faded motion, he saw the outcome that laid ahead of him.

The one hiding behind the tree was nothing but a shadow clone, and he'll be bested by his brother again. While he didn't know what exactly triggered this feeling of déjà vu, Sasuke was sure to trust his instincts.

Itachi keenly observed his brother's movements from a concealed spot behind a shroud of reddened leaves. He made sure he minimised his chakra's presence – making it feasible for little Sasuke to catch him. Although the chances of that happening were slim and close to impossible, given his brother's current feat, he still wanted to challenge him. Normally, an astute Genin would be able to whiff out this amount of chakra he was emitting, but Sasuke has yet to reach that prowess.

His thinned lips arched upwards when his hypothesis came close to realization. Sasuke was heading straight for his shadow clone. Looks like it's game over. His beloved brother has much to learn –

"This is a shadow clone, Onii-san!" Sasuke pointed out in a peevish voice.

It was seldom that Itachi found himself immensely amazed that he was rendered mute. Sasuke was able to see through his cheap trick? That doesn't matter, he wasn't found yet.

The game continues.

Just as Itachi was about to leash his chakra into complete concealment – that even an average Jōnin can't detect – Sasuke's sharp obsidian eyes pierced through his hiding spot and icily made eye contact with him.

Sasuke simply cocked his head slightly. "What are you doing up there, Onii-san?"

Itachi jumped down on the ground and feigned his composure. As he ruffled Sasuke's hair, he began to rummage for answers. His brother was never _that_ sharp. He was still an average child. That being said, he has noticed some discrepancies with Sasuke's recent behaviour. For some unknown reason, there are times where he is extremely cautious of his surrounding it verged on being paranoid.

It was as if he was running away from something.

"How did you know I was there?" He asked gently.

The little boy cupped his chin and contemplated for a moment. The answer he provided wasn't exactly what Itachi expected to hear: "I had a vision!"

"A vision?" he parroted back, quite sceptical.

"Yup. I dreamed about this, I guess."

Once again, Itachi was silenced. While he was glad it was just a mere dream, he did become wary about this. For days on end, Sasuke has been absorbed into the strangest dreams. Is this even normal?

"So, when are you teaching me?" Sasuke suddenly inquired with a soft pout.

The older Uchiha chuckled back and took out a kunai from his pouch.

"Alright. Watch carefully, Sasuke. I'm only going to explain this once."

…

…

…

"Ow… ow!" Sasuke winced.

Mikoto continued to wrap the roll of bandage over her son's sprained ankle. When she was done, she snipped off the remaining bandages and stored it back into her first aid box. With a small sigh, she flicked Sasuke on his forehead. "This is why I don't like you training with your brother. You always get carried away."

"I'm fine," he grumbled back.

"Your father will be the judge of that." Mikoto said simply as she shifted away to finish cutting up the lettuce on the cutting board.

"I'm home."

"Speaking of the devil."

Fugaku entered in the kitchen and immediately made contact with Sasuke. However, instead of giving him the cold shoulder he gave him a small smile. "Have you been training hard, Sasuke?" he asked with a light mood in his tone.

The child could only nod.

"That's what I'd like to hear." The Head of the clan began to sweep through the room for his other son's presence. "Where's Itachi?" he finally asked.

Mikoto's rhythmic cutting ceased. "Shisui dropped by and said he needed to talk to Itachi."

"I see…." Fugaku discarded his flak-jacket and settled down beside his son. "Can you still walk?"

"Yup."

"Good. I was thinking that it's about time that you learnt the Uchiha's signature fire-style technique."

"Fugaku-!" Mikoto tried to protest.

"It's the fundamental jutsu of all Uchiha, Mikoto. Itachi learnt this jutsu around the same age." Fugaku calmly reasoned whilst having his arms folded. "Besides, with the Hokage's new orders, I don't think I'll have another opportunity like this."

Sasuke struggled to get up, but managed to keep his balance once he did so. "Are you talking about the Fireball technique, father?" he asked enthusiastically.

"I am." His gaze then eyed his bandaged ankle. "Are sure you're able to walk, Sasuke?"

He nodded.

"Good. Follow me."

"Dinner will be in an hour!" Mikoto called out as they left the compound.

…

…

…

Upon arriving at the closest river bank, Fugaku hastily weaved the needed seals for the Uchiha's signature fire technique. After he completed the series of hand seals, he leaned forward and spat out a majestic fireball. It was ferocious enough to make the river begin to warm. Slowly, he began to reserve his chakra and his technique grew fainter until it disappeared completely.

"Alright. The hand seals are simple," he began to demonstrate. "The first hand seal is-"

As if it had already been ingrained in Sasuke brain, his hands moved by themselves with familiarity. Then, in a similar fashion, he breathed out a ball of fire out to the river. While it was smaller than his father's, the fact that he could produce such a size was impeccably incredible.

Fugaku held back his breath upon seeing this. But he soon fell into intrigue and he began to guffaw. "My, you really are my son!" he proudly claimed, putting his hand on his frail shoulder. "You can now carry our clan's crest on your back proudly."

Sasuke blushed and drank in every single word Fugaku handed over to him. After all, this was the first time he was being praised. Now that he thought about it, his father was always so uptight on him. No matter how he rose above the expectations of his peers, his father always brushed him off.

There was a strange knot in his stomach that told him something was very wrong.

Despite that, Sasuke completely ignored his gut instinct and happily skipped his father.

Unbeknownst to him, the rising moon had a deep tinge of redness in its wake, holding a familiar tone to the infamous Sharingan.


End file.
